Accreditors under the microscope

ACCREDITORS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE: Education Department officials say a series of actions it is announcing today centering on transparency will force accreditors to focus more on student outcomes and hold failing colleges accountable, with Under Secretary Ted Mitchell saying the steps will help make a "substantial difference" in how accreditors work. But for the most part, the agencies won’t be required to change their practices — not yet, anyway. Instead, the department hopes to drive change by publishing and disseminating a wealth of information about accreditors and the colleges they oversee on a revamped department web page [http://1.usa.gov/20ycI8g]. But policy analysts aren't so hopeful. “Sunshine alone isn’t enough to change behavior,” said Ben Miller, senior director for postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress. “If you release the data and want it to matter, you have to translate that into acting on that information.” My story: http://politico.pro/1Q82qIz

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— The agencies will have to make one change: submitting decision letters — which the department will then publish online — when they put institutions on probation. But a series of legislative recommendations that would lead department officials and members of Congress to do more, including repealing a ban on the department’s ability to set and enforce student achievement standards in accreditor recognition, seems unlikely. “It’s not a good idea,” said HELP Chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander. “Eighty-one senators voted in July to get the federal government out of the business of setting standards in elementary and secondary education — and any proposal to define academic standards from Washington for our country’s 6,000 colleges and universities is equally misguided.” But HELP Ranking Member Patty Murray said she’s “pleased the administration is taking these proactive steps.”

— In other department news, FSA is developing a page within the Information for Financial Aid Professionals website with links to key loan servicing and collection resources. FSA plans to launch by January, but in the meantime, the office put out a set of frequently asked questions for consumer advocates and counselors:http://1.usa.gov/1RYQbeT.

‘IT’S ON US’ HITS ONE-YEAR MARK: It’s not generally a funny topic, but with help from College Humor and a handful of male celebs including New Girl star Jake Johnson, the White House made it work. A new PSA for the “It’s On Us” campaign to combat campus sexual assault features Johnson and four of his buddies hanging out, drinking beers and watching TV — until their fun comes to a screeching halt when an angry bear shows up to wreck the party. But don’t worry, Johnson reassures his terrified bros, it only eats one in five people! “You wouldn’t put up with that,” the PSA says. “So don’t put up with this. One in five women will be sexually assaulted by the time they finish college.” Watch: http://bit.ly/1WDccRE.

— The pledgeto help prevent assault has more than a quarter of a million signatures, and the campaign has become a “rallying cry” since launching last September, White House Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett said. And Johnson said that filming the video changed his own views about men’s role in stopping assaults. “I think there is this code that I know of as a bro and that you kind of look the other way, protect each other and there’s a line that a dude won’t cross against another dude, and I think that’s so tired and boring,” Johnson said, adding that that idea is “now over.”

— As part of the It’s On Us Week of Action, Vice President Joe Biden will visit three colleges next week. While 92 campuses in 35 states nearly 250 host pledge drives, town halls and other events, Biden will speak at the U.S. Naval Academy on Monday and Clemson University and Morehouse College on Tuesday.

** A message from the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers: This summer, both chambers of Congress made progress in passing versions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Let’s finish the job now and produce a final product that takes the best of both bills. All children deserve a great public education: Let’s get ESEA done. Let’s get ESEA right.bit.ly/getESEAdone **

TODAY: UNIONS FILE BRIEF IN FRIEDRICHS: The California Teachers Association will file its brief today in the Supreme Court case Friedrichs v. CTA, in which the court may deem public union “fair share” fees unconstitutional. As Pro Labor & Employment’s Brian Mahoney has written [http://politico.pro/1MfpPlc], an adverse ruling in Friedrichs could lead to requiring public unions to operate in all 50 states as they do in 25 right-to-work states that forbid unions from collecting dues or their equivalent from non-members, even though those unions bargain collectively for members and non-members alike.

— The NEA and SEIU plan to publicize the brief with a press blitz emphasizing the corporate backers of the Friedrichs plaintiffs and the decision’s effect on the lives of union members. “Big corporations and the wealthy few are pushing legislation and lawsuits to make it harder for people to join together. Friedrichs, which would restrict the rights of teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses and other people who serve the public to have a say in our wages and how we protect our communities, is just the latest example,” the Service Employees International Union said: http://bloom.bg/1GNOhgI.

STUDENTS MEET WITH SPECIAL MASTER: Former Everest College students participate in a roundtable discussion today in Chicago with Sen. Dick Durbin, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Joseph Smith, the special master appointed to oversee claims filed with the Education Department by thousands of former Corinthian Colleges students seeking student loan forgiveness. Durbin has pushed the department to do more to streamline the process, and in September, Smith said he’s “working hard to give [borrowers] the relief you deserve.” [http://politico.pro/1EV0grM]

ADIDAS TO HELP WITH MASCOT CHANGES: A new adidas campaign aims to entice high schools with mascots that may offend Native Americans to make a change. The athletic brand will offer design services and money to buffer the costs of switching to a new mascot, the company said Thursday, coinciding with the White House Tribal Nations Conference. Of the 27,000 U.S. high schools, 2,000 use names that cause concern in Native communities, adidas says: http://bit.ly/1HdzaND.

PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS: Based on ACT scores, private high school graduates are more likely to be college-ready than graduates from other schools, the Council for American Private Education reports [http://bit.ly/1McPqPd]. For the 2015 class, 85 percent of graduates of religious and independent schools who took the ACT met or exceeded the test’s college readiness benchmark score in English, versus 61 percent of public school grads.The share of students who met or surpassed the benchmark scores in other subjects was also higher in private schools in reading (66 percent compared to 44 percent), math (60 percent compared to 40 percent) and science (55 percent compared to 36 percent). Just over 10 percent of ACT test takers graduated from private schools.

NO CANDIDATE LEFT BEHIND: Today, Hillary Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley will take part in a Democratic forum in South Carolina that, though it is not one of the six official debates sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee, will be moderated by Rachel Maddow and air at 8 p.m. ET on MSNBC. The state Democratic Party and Sen. James E. Clyburn are hosting.

— A lengthy Heritage Action report on the GOP field includes concerns about Sen. Marco Rubio’s plans for higher education. While Rubio has innovative ideas — the most promising of which would reform accreditation — they don’t all follow small-government principles, Heritage argues. “Rubio’s proposal is more prescriptive than some alternative accreditation reform proposals. This reliance on government-set criteria also carries through to his proposal to increase federal involvement in publicizing data on student outcomes,” says the report, due out Monday. The Washington Post has excerpts: http://wapo.st/1Q78Mb5

UNION-BACKED CANDIDATES WIN OVER ST. PAUL: School board changes in the Denver area snagged the spotlight this week [http://politico.pro/1l9UVnA], but less noticed: voters’ demands for a total overhaul of the St. Paul, Minnesota, school board. Four candidates closely aligned with the district’s teachers union won a majority of seats in a rout that cranks up the heat on Superintendent Valeria Silva in the state’s second-largest school system, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune notes [http://strib.mn/1ksgGOM]. The union’s involvement included hiring two full-time organizers and using $100,000 in contributions from the American Federation of Teachers and Education Minnesota.

— The union wanted more input on the district's major initiatives, including better integration of students with disabilities and a shift away from out-of-school suspensions. More from the Pioneer Press: http://bit.ly/1HdDmwU.

— Another ICYMI on the elections front: a Colorado county that’s been actively courting the marijuana industry OK’d the world’s first pot-funded college scholarship this week, approving the 5-percent excise tax on weed growers by a 20-point margin [http://apne.ws/1MKQjR6]. It should raise about $3.5 million a year by 2020, available to any Pueblo County high school senior attending one of two public colleges there.

HOW MUCH DID COMMON CORE TESTS AFFECT NAEP? The transition to more rigorous, Common Core-aligned assessments is partly why scores on the Nation’s Report Card dropped for the first time in more than 20 years — but only a small part, Thomas Kane writes for the Brookings Institution. States participating in PARCC and Smarter Balanced exams performed slightly lower (about .8 scale points) than non-participating states with similar achievement on the 2013 exam. Participating states represent about half of all public elementary and secondary students nationwide, Kane writes. “That means that if we were to add .8 points to the scores in each of the PARCC and SBAC states, it would boost national achievement by .38 points … such a boost would have eliminated 29 percent of the 1.3 point decline in fourth grade math and 19 percent of the 2.4 point decline in eighth grade math. In other words, the majority of the decline would have remained.” More: http://brook.gs/1NfLp9h.

— Related: Nearly half of Mississippi high school students met or exceeded expectations in English on the PARCC exam, and 27 percent who scored similarly in algebra. The scores were low, as expected. Remaining scores will be released in late December. Mississippi students will soon take a different test, however, after the state pulled out of the testing group this year.

— And speaking of standards, the Connecticut State Board of Education unanimously approved the Next Generation Science Standards earlier this week.

MORNING EDUCATION MEA CULPA: Thursday’s Morning Education incorrectly identified the universities whose Division I teams had the highest graduation rates. Stanford and Notre Dame came out on top in football, while in basketball Kansas, Duke, Villanova, Notre Dame and Butler all had perfect graduation rates.

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SYLLABUS

— Gov. Bill Haslam says the future of Common Core now rests with educators, not politicians. Chalkbeat Tennessee: http://bit.ly/1NvPJWh

— A new universal transcript that the Army says would better catalog a soldier’s education, training and experience has gained attention from the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. Army Times: http://bit.ly/1LS36h1

— Philadelphia's next mayor says he wants to get universal prekindergarten in place by next fall. Associated Press: http://bit.ly/1RYaHMw

— The University of Texas system will require that a woman or minority candidate be interviewed for every high-level position at its 14 universities and medical schools. Texas Tribune: http://bit.ly/1kwwtwe

— As new tools bust down barriers for the blind, schools struggle to keep up. NPR: http://n.pr/1WDlehH

** A message from National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers: We know that Congress has a busy agenda this fall, but we must not lose focus on the needs of our nation’s students. Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education act cannot wait. America’s students, parents and educators need a new law that moves past No Child Left Behind. Any new law should maintain the historic purpose of ESEA by preserving the focus on low-income students and equity, and ultimately focus on delivering the high-quality education that all our children deserve.

Great progress has already been made as both chambers have passed their own ESEA proposals this past July. But students cannot wait any longer for a revised law. Now is the time to finish the job and produce a final product that takes the best of both bills and reauthorizes the outdated NCLB. All children deserve a great public education: Let’s get ESEA done. Let’s get ESEA right.bit.ly/getESEAdone **